Not exactly. With Telus, you can prepay $100 for 365 days, and then, provided you haven't let it expire, that money ($100 -- or more if you extend, which you can) becomes a credit on your account when you go on a new plan (even if it's only a month-to-month one). So -- you spend the money upfront, but essentially you get it back later. Sort of like a deposit. Sounds as if, with Koodo, you'd spend $180 to hold a number for a year, and then it would just be gone.

Ah ok i understand what you mean, If you prepay and come back before planned that money will stay in your account as a credit :) The seasonal hold stays until you call to remove it, exactly like any other rate plan!

Port the number out to a cheapie VoIP service such as CallCentric. Service will cost you about $7 US a month, but your number will be active indefinitely. You will even be able to forward incoming calls to other numbers worldwide at reasonable rates, if you so wish.

There are other internet services where you can park your number for a lot less than $15 a month. Do a search for "fongo" in the search box of this site to get some other ideas.